We Triumph in God’s Love: Letting His Love Flow Through Us (1 John 3)

We triumph in God’s love, Pastor Paul Hohman teaches, not only by receiving it but by letting it flow out of us to other people. In a world full of uncertainty about jobs, health, the economy and the future, he urges believers to focus on what is certain: the unwavering love of a heavenly Father who sent His Son to die for us. Then he walks through 1 John 3 to show what that love looks like in action.

This midweek message continues a teaching on God’s love that he began the month before, and it ends with an invitation to receive Christ. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the key Scriptures (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical ways to love one another this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was shared during a Wednesday evening service at NTC Ministries, the New Testament Church, and posted on March 30, 2020. The service was streamed online while the congregation stayed home, and it runs about 49 minutes, with the message beginning after worship and prayer.

He explains that he began teaching on the triumph of God’s love the month before, looking at how much God loves us in the book of Romans. This time he wants to go further: not only how we receive God’s love, but what that love does inside us and how it moves through us to others. His main text is 1 John 3:10–24, which he reads from the Passion Translation.

Certain Love in Uncertain Times

Pastor Paul begins with the uncertainties people were facing: their jobs, their health, the economy, the government and the school system. We live in a world of uncertainty, he says, but as Christians we can be certain about the love of Jesus Christ. Rather than focusing on what we do not know, we focus on what we do know, and we find it by reading and studying the Word of God.

He points to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:34 not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. We do not know what tomorrow holds, he says, but we are certain about the unwavering love of a heavenly Father. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). He so loves you, and He so loves this world.

That love is a gift, and like any gift it has to be received. Pastor Paul pictures giving his children a present. He does not want them to sit and admire the wrapping. He wants them to open the box, play with what is inside and enjoy it. God wants the same for us: to open His love, get to know it and keep expanding so we can receive more of it.

He compares God’s love to faith. You might not see it, and you might not always feel it, but faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). And just as faith without works is dead (James 2:26), the love of God is not meant only to be received for ourselves. It is meant to be given away.

A world searching for hope can only find it in Jesus Christ. When we receive His love and let it flow through us to love one another, Pastor Paul says, we triumph even when everything around us feels uncertain.

How God’s Children Are Known: 1 John 3

Turning to 1 John 3:10–11, Pastor Paul reads that God’s children can be clearly distinguished from the children of the evil one. Anyone who does not practice righteousness and does not love his brother is not of God. If I am not showing the love of God, he asks, is God really my source?

How do you make God your source? It starts with accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, but he says there is much more to it than a prayer. A lot of people know about God. What matters is building a relationship with Him. The more he learns in the Word how much God loves him, the more love he has to share.

Verse 11 says the message we heard from the beginning is that we should love one another, which he reads as walking in self-sacrificing love toward one another. That reminds him of Philippians 2:3–5, where each of us is to look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others, and to let the mind of Christ be in us.

Reading that passage from the Passion Translation, he highlights how prideful opinions harm our cherished unity, and how authentic humility puts others first. Why does unity matter so much? He turns to Psalm 133: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” It is there, the psalm says, that the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

The table below follows the verses of 1 John 3 as Pastor Paul reads and applies them through the message.

We Triumph When We Look for Opportunities Like Jesus

To show what that mindset looks like, Pastor Paul describes how Jesus lived. Everywhere He went He healed all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). He made everything better. When a wedding ran out of wine, He turned water into wine and made the party even better (John 2:1–11). He fed the multitudes with a handful of food, the five loaves and two fish.

Then he asks the church to imagine Jesus living today, heading to the store for groceries and sighing when someone stops Him. Pastor Paul says that was never Jesus’ heart. Jesus did not have to go out of His way to help people. Helping people was His way. He looked forward to it.

In fact, he notes, the Gospels could not even contain all the signs, wonders and miracles Jesus did, all the love that flowed out of Him (John 21:25). That same love now lives in every believer who has called on the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We triumph in God’s love when we start looking for opportunities the way Jesus did.

Verse 12 gives the opposite picture: we should not be like Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4:3–8). Why? Because his own works were evil. Rather than receiving love from the Father and letting it build unity, Pastor Paul says, Cain let pride separate him: my needs, my wants, my desires, God do this for me. He admits all of us have been there.

Verses 13–15 say not to be surprised if the world hates you, and that we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Speaking to his church family through a phone screen, Pastor Paul says he misses seeing their faces and feels something missing inside. That, he says, is love. It has to show action and flow toward others.

God has given us the manual, Pastor Paul says, and He wants to talk with us personally. As we receive His love, it pours through us like a waterfall that cannot be stopped, and we love one another.

Choose Life and Get Creative in How We Love One Another

A loveless life remains spiritually dead, Pastor Paul says, and just as the natural body needs food and nutrients to live, so does the spiritual body. We feed it with the life-giving power of the Word of God every day. He encourages everyone to make it a discipline: get up early, read the Bible and find out what God says about you today. He constantly asks, “God, tell me again how much You love me.”

He refers to a recent Sunday message from Dr. William Hohman, the senior pastor, on Deuteronomy 30:15–19, which he reads in the New Living Translation. God set before His people a choice between life and death, blessings and curses, and urged them to choose life. We choose life, Pastor Paul says, through Jesus Christ, and that opens us up to a brand-new way of living.

He contrasts that with building a future on our own willpower. When we put our hope and trust in a living God who loves us, He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

With many people staying home at the time, he urges believers not to shut themselves in emotionally. Ask God to open your eyes and give you creative and unique ways to show His love. God’s love, he says, is not given to us to be shut up inside us. It is given to flow out of us like a rushing river.

He names the excuses we all make: my personality, I am an introvert, I have this condition, I cannot talk to people. Why limit the potential of God’s love inside you? Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). And what the enemy meant for evil, God can turn for good (Genesis 50:20), so that souls are saved and His kingdom advances. The Lord still adds to the church daily those who are being saved (Acts 2:47).

That does not mean doing something reckless, he adds. We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and are led by the Holy Spirit. It might mean sitting down to write a letter and mailing it, sending a small gift, or praying for people. Or it might be a simple text to a family member you are at odds with, saying you love them.

We Triumph Through Love in Action

Verse 16 says we know love by this: Jesus laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for one another (1 John 3:16–18). Pastor Paul notes that the news tends to focus on the negative, but every so often a story of sacrificial love slips through, such as a minister in Europe who gave up a respirator to someone younger.

He urges the church to look to the good, the way Jesus did. When the disciples could only count how little they had, Jesus looked to the Father. God will supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19), and the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

Verse 17 asks how the love of God can abide in someone who sees a brother in need and shuts up his heart against him. Pastor Paul asks a pointed question: if we have God’s love inside us but keep it to ourselves, how are we any different from people who live in fear and hoard groceries for themselves? Freely we have received, so freely we give (Matthew 10:8).

Verse 18 says to love not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Our love cannot be an abstract theory, he says. It has to be a way of life, as it was for Jesus, who was always looking for ways to bless people. The church has a confession, he reminds them, about becoming Jesus with skin on, and it is time for that to be more than a phrase we quote.

This love is for everyone: family, neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances around the world and even enemies. If you surrendered your life to Jesus, something greater happened inside you, and we have to live so that others can have that same experience.

Verses 19–22 bring assurance. When our hearts condemn us and remind us of our failures, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. We cannot hide anything from Him, Pastor Paul says, and He still loves us. When our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask we receive, because we keep His commandments.

Which commandments? Jesus gave a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you, and by this all will know that you are My disciples (John 13:34–35). It can be scary at times, he admits, but aren’t you glad someone loved you enough to show you the love of God?

We do not need to force the gospel on anyone, he adds. Jesus never did. He showed the Father’s love through kindness, compassion and generosity, and every follower of Christ can do the same. Verses 23–24 sum it up: believe on the name of Jesus and love one another, and He abides in us by the Spirit He has given us. That, he says, is another way we triumph in God’s love: it flourishes inside us where others can see it.

He closes with Romans 8:37: in all these things we are more than conquerors. Reading it from the Passion Translation, he stresses that God’s demonstrated love is our glorious victory, which is exactly how we triumph. Because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), when troubles come we will not fear. Then he invites anyone listening to pray and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Living It Out: Love One Another This Week

Pastor Paul’s message is a call to receive God’s love and let it move. Here are the practical steps he gives:

• Ask God to tell you again. Begin each day in the Word and pray, “God, tell me again how much You love me.”
• Start something at home. If you are home more than usual, start a Bible study or a devotional time with your children, roommate or spouse.
• Ask for creative ideas. Pray for unique ways to show love, then write a letter, send a gift or send a text to someone who is struggling.
• Reach for the outskirts. Contact a family member you are at odds with, or someone who has drifted away, and tell them you love them.
• Do not hoard love. When you see someone in need and you have the means to help, open your heart instead of closing it.
• Tell someone. If you prayed to receive Jesus, he asks you to tell someone, by phone or on social media, and then build a daily habit in the Word.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Worship
• 10:39 Welcome to the Wednesday service
• 14:04 Prayer for those in need
• 15:11 Pastor Paul Hohman is introduced
• 16:17 Continuing the triumph of God’s love
• 17:17 Focus on the certainties, not the uncertainties
• 18:15 Take no thought for tomorrow; God so loved the world
• 20:09 1 John 3:10–24 and creativity in hard times
• 21:09 How God’s children are distinguished
• 22:10 Self-sacrificing love and Philippians 2
• 23:08 Unity: Psalm 133
• 25:17 Jesus at the grocery store
• 26:17 Do not be like Cain
• 27:23 From death to life by loving the brethren
• 29:48 Feed your spirit every day
• 31:08 Choose life: Deuteronomy 30
• 32:17 Get creative in how you show love
• 34:33 Jesus laid down His life for us
• 35:51 Do not close your heart to someone in need
• 38:20 Becoming Jesus with skin on
• 41:11 God is greater than our hearts; the new commandment
• 43:44 His love flourishing in us
• 45:06 More than conquerors: Romans 8:37
• 46:30 Prayer to receive Christ

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it enough to pray once to receive Jesus?

Pastor Paul leads a salvation prayer at the end of the message and welcomes anyone who prays it. But he also says there is more to it than a prayer. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing Him. He encourages new believers to tell someone about their decision and then discipline their lives to get into the Word every day, so that the relationship grows.

What if I am not an outgoing person?

He addresses this directly. People say they are introverted, or have a condition, or cannot talk to others, and he asks why we would limit the potential of God’s love inside us. Showing love does not have to be loud. He suggests writing and mailing a letter, sending a small gift, praying for someone or sending a short text to say you love them.

Does God stop loving me when I fail?

No. Reading 1 John 3:19–22, Pastor Paul says that when our hearts remind us of our failures and make us feel guilty, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything about us. We cannot hide anything from Him, and He still loves us. When our hearts do not condemn us, we can speak to God with confidence.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• 1 John 3:10–11 — how God’s children are known
• 1 John 3:16–18 — love in deed and in truth
• John 3:16 — God so loved the world
• Matthew 6:34 — do not worry about tomorrow
• Philippians 2:3–5 — esteem others better than yourself
• Psalm 133 — the blessing of unity
• Deuteronomy 30:15–19 — choose life
• John 13:34–35 — the new commandment
• Romans 8:37 — more than conquerors

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

Watch More Messages

If this message encouraged you to let God’s love flow through you, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in the love that never fails.